Swedish Pancakes, Coffee, and a little Tempo Run!

I've noticed, in reading through some of my old bloops that I tend to ramble on and on and on and on... well you get the idea... So just on the off chance you are not looking to read a novel every time you glance at my piddly little contributions to the loop, I have decided to color coordinate my bloops... The Run report portion of today's read will be GREEN!!!! Why? because I like GREEN!!!! a LOT... and do you really need another reason?If by some small chance you are adventurous and decide to read through every little word I write, Well, that would be Swell, and I will do my best to make it worth your time

This morning Mr. GiniaQ and I had to wake up early - JUST in case the Window guy decided to show up and install my new bathroom window - We remodeled our master bathroom... well lets just say a while ago... and part of the plan was to Add a window! So I've been looking at a partial hole in the wall for... ahem... a while... and finally the time has come for the installation - that is until we found out that the window's didn't arrive on time, so they didn't come today after all. OK, back to bed for at LEAST 3 more... no... 4 more hours

So a lovely sleep in time (which rarely happens) and the Mr. and I spent our morning... er... afternoon by the time we got moving... just relaxing. We watched a fantastic movie - Cloud Atlas - LOVED IT! And I made Swedish Pancakes for breakfast... er... lunch. For those of you who are less familiar with Swedish Pancakes, they are very similar to Crepes. We enjoyed them with strawberries, bananas, vanilla greek yogurt and yes... Lingonberries I also had a few with some delicious heirloom tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. yum yum yum yum.... I must say this makes a great pre-run meal!

The plan today was pretty simple. Enjoy some much needed chill time, and at some point go for my 7 mile Tempo run. So as we watched our movie and enjoyed a wonderful meal complete with a GiniaQ specialty - Amazing Coffee!!!!!!!! I began to realize that it looked kinda stormy out... not raining yet, but kinda dark and ominous. Hopeful that the weather would not turn scarey before my miles I decided to head out before dark this time.

At 7:30 in the evening the sun was finally peaking through and the day had turned nice. Humid, and kinda hot, but nice. Cooler than it has been during the day as of late.

My plan, 7 miles with 2 miles for warm-up followed by 5 miles at a fast Tempo pace. My goal was between 8 and 8:10min/mile pace for the fast miles.

Armed with my handheld bottle full of ice and a little water, my favorite green headband to "help" keep the sweat out of my eyes, and my Garmin, I was off for my first Tempo run of my Marathon training plan, and my last Run for Week 2!!!!!

Miles 1-2 averaged an 8:58 pace - perfect for a warm up - which I am now religious about doing on every run ever since dealing with PF for the better part of last year. I am running pain free now, and intend to stay that way, and my Active Release Therapist says that continuing to be diligent about warming up properly, and extending my flexibility are the keys to this goal - so far he has been correct, no big surprise there!

I was running on the Indian Creek Trail for this run and I love this trail because it allows me to NEVER stop for traffic, and is quite lovely, trees, creatures, you know, those things that help you forget you live in a city! But yesterday's storm means the "Creek" turned into more of a raging muddy mess and several places in these first two miles had slippery mud all over the trail that I had to carefully slide through to get to the other side - my shoes are now a nice shade of mud that I usually only see after running on Non-paved trails... fortunately the only muddy places were during the first portion, and I could return a slightly different way to avoid them on the way back so I wouldn't have to slow down during the speedy miles later... (did I mention I was doing an out and back?)

After the first couple miles I dipped in for a quick potty break and some light stretching before beginning the scary part of my workout... the FAST stuff.

I haven't really pushed my speed for some time, so I was a little nervous about my goal for today - especially since I was not convinced that it was an obtainable goal for me at this early stage in the training. I figured, either way at least I would know exactly where I stand by the end.

Mile 3: 8:01 - Perfect! But my head was already playing games with me... Doubt rushed in like the little Creek over the trail during the last storm - "GiniaQ you will neeeeever hold this pace, listen to how hard you are already breathing! What were you thinking setting such a fast goal for this workout, you just aren't a fast runner anymore, accept it, You'll never make it to Boston, how can you if this pace feels hard now!!!!"- you know, the typical, self defeating, self sabotaging stuff.. I pushed on, knowing that it might be hard, but that is ok, I told myself it is only week 2, out of At Least 18 in my plan depending on which race I pick, plenty of time to gain my speed back, and if it goes well today, GREAT, if not, I know what I need to do!Besides it is summer, its Hot and Humid, you are doing fine, and when the weather cools off, you'll kick it up a few notches easy!I forged on, dreading the two hills ahead of me.

Mile 4: 7:53 -Wow, that mile felt great! I could hardly believe I pulled a sub 8 without feeling overworked, but then I remembered that it was only my second of 5 fast miles so I should probably try to conserve a little more for the next couple if I intended to make my goals. Drenched in sweat already the breeze felt AMAZING!

Mile 5: 7:55 -OK, this mile was Rough! I hit not one but two rather daunting hills, but survived, and was thankful that today was not the day my knee chose to act up on the downhill. I guess revisiting my old PT exercises after running running nothing but high elevation hills in CO a couple weeks ago paid off! Favorite encouraging moment for Mile five was passing the family (mom and two kids, with Grandpa) and overhearing the littlest boy telling mom he wanted to run up and catch up to Grandpa... Mom "you can run up to Grandpa, go for it kiddo"... Little boy - as I zip by - "I can run like her to Grandpa?" Mom "yes, you can run just like her, nice and fast!" I giggled to my self at the extreme cuteness of the little guy, he had no clue how much he helped me out! Thanks Kid!

Mile 6: 8:00 - Starting to regret those sub 8 miles now, but thankful to be almost done. Wishing for a street crossing with lots of traffic and a red light that would force me to rest for a moment, and cursing my decision to run on a trail with NO STREET CROSSINGS... Ok, it was a good choice for the workout, but at this point my mind was looking for any excuse to stop for a few minutes and catch my breath and shake out my quads - now reminding me why I no longer enjoy running Downhill... The last mile would hold several rather uncomfortable hills... not looking forward to that, I contemplated dumping the last of my water on my neck for a quick cool down before attacking the monsters... "Good Idea" that was just what I needed to charge into the final mile!

Mile 7: 7:45!!!!!!!!! UHM 7:45!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG 7:45!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I could hardly believe I held that pace! Don't get me wrong, it felt like.... ... Definitely harder than I want, but the fact is, I did it, I held the pace, and my last fast mile was faster than the ones before, and with hills no less! As I charged up the final hill I remember imagining it was the last hill in a marathon, with the finish line on the other side - Hospital Hill half does this - you run up "the Hospital Hill" and then its a nice downhill finish... But in this case, there would be no downhill finish, I had to finish strong - UP HILL!!!! I imagined all my favorite people standing at the sidelines as I charged down the finish chute ---"Go V, Go!!!!!" I imagined the most amazing miracle of a finish time I could have, and then it was done... 7:45 pace for the final mile and I felt like I would puke. I probably would have allowed it to happen but I didn't want to spoil my memory of my amazing Swedish pancake and coffee breakfast... er lunch...

Upon reviewing Garmin's report for today, wouldn't you know that during the entire run, the fastest I ran was a 7:45 pace, way to save it for the end!

Total mileage today -- 7.1 after a little extra on my street just to get back to the house.Time -- 58:46Overall Average (including warm -up) -- 8:22

Suddenly I'm feeling much more optimistic about my Marathon training.

Foam roller, and CORE, and a long stretching session, and I have to say I'm feeling pretty good. Tomorrow I cross train on the stationary bike, and of course with the hubby at bowling --- that counts right?

That's all I got Friends. I hope you enjoyed reading, and if you hung in there for the non-GREEN word, Thanks!!!! Sorry for the double bloop today/tonight... and p.s. I'm still trying to finalize my decision on an October Marathon - thanks to those who have already made suggestions, please keep em coming!!!!

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